


Tantalus and the Red Sky

by nonky



Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-04-22 17:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22195990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: "Reality has a way of waiting on the shore for you," Owen said. It could be a black dog of oppressive gloom, or a loyal companion panting to reveal happy outcomes, but it wouldn't wait long once his phone signal lit up with the inevitable messages.Spoilers up to Episode 9, but picking up directly after Paying the Ferryman.
Relationships: Nancy Drew/Owen Marvin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10
Collections: Nancy Drew TV Series (2019)





	Tantalus and the Red Sky

Owen Marvin was taught a good sailor kept one eye on the horizon. It staved off motion sickness, and gave early warnings of turns in the weather. A smart sailor kept his other eye on his guest, especially the hard to pin Nancy Drew. 

Now that he knew exactly how beautiful she really was, it would be ungrateful to look at anything else when she was around. He was still keeping contact in little ways, letting her pretend to eat as he offered himself to lean against.

"How much of the timing of your day off work was a plan older than finding out my father was arrested last night," Nancy asked him idly. She had a drink in her hand, and a sandwich neatly folded into a napkin on her towel. She had turned down alcohol, but Owen hadn't missed the way she also wasn't really eating their picnic food. She might have eaten three grapes, but at least she was still playing along with his casual adventure.

He sighed, and allowed himself a second of glancing caress along the safe top of her bare shoulder. It didn't matter they'd been having sex half an hour ago. Nancy had modes, every shift between business and personal demanding he respect the boundaries as they realigned. 

"I might have canceled my first meeting of the day instead of checking in at work before I set out," Owen told her humbly. "It was my plan to come out, but I cleared some other incidental things. Does that dent my suave and seamless distraction technique?"

Blue eyes studied his expression, read a litany of things he didn't try to hide from her, and Nancy shook her head. She touched him, fingertips damp from her glass. The outline of four little circles on his forearm left a peculiar electric feel he liked. 

"No. I've noticed people who tend to be right where you need them generally have a pretty good sense of events at large, and I can't fault you for effort. If you ask me if I'm okay, I will subtract points."

She couldn't possibly be okay, but she wasn't impaired or despairing. She had done everything possible for the present, and was biding her time until the next useful action. Owen hadn't lost anyone to legal trouble, but he recalled grief from his childhood. Nancy carried it gracefully for someone young but it wasn't the same as being unmoved.

"It's a lifetime to be okay," he said. "I'm not sure I'll get there. But you're having fun right now, I think? I'm pretty sure you enjoyed yourself for a few minutes. The being okay gets easier with some practice."

Owen had started sleeping in the guest house as soon as he was old enough to claim it, avoiding his old bedroom in the house. There were a lot of good memories in Horseshoe Bay, and one very catastrophic day when he heard Sebastian had drowned along with his sailors on The Bonny Scot. Sleeping somewhere more neutral allowed him rest on his worse nights. 

"I'm thinking clearer and enjoying you," Nancy said slowly. "I wanted to do a million things last night when they took him away. I came close to punching a police detective, if McGinnis hadn't seen it coming and kept herding me to the opposite side of the room from Karen. This is better. What I do next is going to reflect on his case. I can do better than adding an assault charge to my own troubles."

Owen nodded. "This might be redundant, but if you need help I'll do whatever I can," he said. 

"I'm getting that impression from you doing me about six favours a week. Thank you."

He finished his drink and put the empty glass down. "If you're not going to touch your food, do you want a refill?"

She tipped her chin apologetically. "I'm sorry. I just don't have an appetite. I can avoid doing anything, but I can't turn off my brain."

He glanced at the sky. It wasn't as bright as earlier, with some darker clouds moving in. Owen shrugged. "I like your brain. But we don't have to go back in. There are guest rooms in the cabin, too."

"I'd go crazy not having any news the whole day. I need to check in. I at least need to let my boss yell at me for missing work, so I have a fresh start when I need to miss work, again," Nancy said wryly. "No one can hide forever."

He could relate to that sentiment. The truth slipped in awkward phrases and moments of inattention. It didn't take much talking to overshare and scare someone off. Wealth was privilege, but it made for some odd introductions once people realized his family employed one of their relatives, or had bought out and closed a small business they used to patronize. 

Owen would like to believe he could be faithful to one person, with enough love to elevate that person above any other concerns. He expected to marry eventually and have a family of his own. He wasn't in any hurry, and it was particularly unseemly to let thoughts like that start up around an eighteen year old. He was also glad he'd been able to go to university without too much fuss associated with the Marvin fortune and the way they ran their business concerns linked to him personally. He would answer now for the company policies, but not the ones from before. There was a very important stage of growing up Nancy was due, a half decade or so where she should be allowed her space to be an individual and shape her own future. 

He'd had to step into some predetermined roles when he officially joined the family business. The trade-off for having a place set aside for him was the baggage of knowing the mistakes made in building the company to its current point. Links to the Hudsons were a stinging embarrassment, and the suspicions about the sinking of The Bonny Scot a painful secret to keep. He was working to correct errors he didn't always comprehend.

"Reality has a way of waiting on the shore for you," Owen said. It could be a black dog of oppressive gloom, or a loyal companion panting to reveal happy outcomes, but it wouldn't wait long once his phone signal lit up with the inevitable messages.

It would be insufferable of him to play at mentoring her, both of them in swimsuits with her hair still mussed from their hookup. Nick wasn't quite as off her mind as he thought Nancy was aware, and Owen wasn't fond of being a way to burn through her breakup angst. He hoped he could get to know her in some typical ways before the next crisis. There was always a fire to be put out somewhere, and he was probably needed back on shore for some moderately important decision that caused some minor stress to a few employees if he wasn't there to make the call. 

"Your mistake was getting too well known," he joked. "If you're going to go around winning sandcastle decorating championships before you've even hit ten, you lose a lot of privacy to the glitz and glamour of the spotlight. How does she do it, and what's it like to be a legend so young, your public asks."

There would be some media interest in the Drews now, and Owen should probably offer to stay clear until Carson and Nancy had both settled their legal situations. The Lucy Sable case was a big part of town lore. A father-daughter murder conspiracy could be built up into quite a salacious story without the daughter dating a local real estate heir and her lawyer father dating the police detective who'd arrested him. The whole situation was a crate of explosives sitting next to a campfire. 

Owen felt a pang of empathy for the amount of extra notice he knew was coming for the little family. He would whisk her away if it was possible, but nothing Nancy did now would let her drop back below the notice of at least the local newspaper. He suspected she would get picked up regionally as a news story. She had an unlikely look for a criminal, and her father's profession would make the story an oddity. Their best chance was to get charges dismissed early and hope it was a busy day with other news. 

"I can only be relieved I turned down all those million dollar deals for my macaroni art pieces," Nancy said lightly. "I'm not good at playing to a crowd. I've never seen the point of putting on a sweeter personality to fool people. It seems weird to pretend to be less capable to be more likable."

He could see her real confusion. Nancy was innately clever and shouldn't have to hide it. Unfortunately, he thought a judge might be happier seeing less intelligence if it meant she had blundered into a crime instead of setting out to be a vigilante. 

"But you're prepared to play just a little dumb if it gets you free," he asked, worried her jaw was set in a dissatisfied stiffness. "Just a small white lie about being a dumb kid to grease a judge's way to letting you slide on a promise not to do it again isn't the same as betraying your beliefs. I'm often very glad to let people think I'm nothing but hair product and spa treatments from the neck up. It's okay to have someone assume a weakness if it gives you some well-hidden leverage."

Stereotypes about getting a reserved seat in the company instead of working his way up to leadership bothered Owen, until he'd figured out how to use the assumptions. He didn't want to be mistaken by friends or family, but he'd take the misunderstanding in his work life. 

"I guess I'm sort of offended I have to insist Lucy Sable's murder should be solved," Nancy told him. "It feels obvious to me, but I'm in the wrong for trying to make it happen."

"Everyone deserves justice," he agreed, sighing. Sometimes being out on the water brought back memories of learning to sail, Sebastian's instruction guiding him as his uncle let him think his small hands were strong enough to actually help pull the ropes and turn the steering wheel. "Okay, Drew, I feel like we've started brooding. Maybe the best thing to do is call this a good day on the water and head in."

She turned her face to his and kissed him, a solid peck exponentially more certain than their first kiss. Owen liked the simplicity of it, and the sense of duty Nancy had toward her own father. It was too early to get into the heavy stuff, but she would understand his responsibilities pressed him into action. 

"It was a really good day, on or off the water," she told him, smiling broadly as she rapped her knuckles on the wooden deck. "I'm really glad you're more into pirates than dainty mermaids."

There never seemed to be enough time with people Owen truly valued. He could sense the potential in his responses to Nancy. He felt like she was genuinely enjoying him on the same level. Maybe if they were lucky, they could make something of it before family secrets and complicated goals crushed the rapport.


End file.
